are increasingly becoming curators of
content, rather than focusing entirely on
its creation and distribution. You can see
this reflected in the popularity of enterprise tools like Yammer and Jive, which
are turning “brochureware” intranets
into crowdsourced social networks.

We’re also entering an era of two-way
communication—people expect content
to be interactive. It’s rare to consume
media without being cajoled to interact
in some way: to like, tweet, comment or
share. Audiences also expect to be able
to filter out what they don’t find interesting. Both of these expectations apply
at work as much as they do outside the
office walls.

In the new world order, internal communicators are business enablers, conversation
facilitators and community connectors—
key players in a more fluid and far less
controlled process of organizational communication and social engagement.

You can see this shift happening asorganizations relabel their employeecommunication functions with exoticnames like “business enablement” and“employee insight and engagement.”But a change of name alone does notchange a person’s character. Once, therewas anecdotal evidence that peoplewere shunted into internal communica-tion when their employer couldn’t findanother role for them. Now people arejust as likely to move into internal com-munication after proving themselvesin launching and nurturing internalsocial networks, using emerging tech-nology to stimulate discussion, andpromoting sideways or peer-to-peercommunication.

The question is whether there is a common theme here—whether this loose
collection of skills and competencies is
part of something bigger and represents
a genuine shift in terms of what we will
be expected to do as communicators, or
whether this is merely an extension of
our current skill set. I have a hunch I
know the answer, but only time will tell.

about the author
Lee Smith is co-founder of Gatehouse,
an international consultancy based in
London that specializes in employee
communication, engagement and
change. Follow him on Twitter:
@gatehousegroup.

More to Deliver. This report from executive search firm Watson Helsby offers
insight on the state of the internal communication profession.

Engaging for Success. A 2009 report to the U.K. government by David MacLeod
and Nita Clarke provides evidence of the value the internal communication
profession delivers.